


Battle of the Library

by Holkie



Series: Mordhaus [11]
Category: Metalocalypse
Genre: Derick - Freeform, Gen, Gunnar - Freeform, Huk, Ivo - Freeform, Janet Strickland (Gear 1195), Teja - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 18:25:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10724745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holkie/pseuds/Holkie
Summary: This was sparked by something Hallo Katzchen was working on- drawings of friends' Gear OCs.  She had posted a drawing of 4 or 5 of them.  I suddenly saw Janet with them, about a foot or a foot & a half shorter than them, no battle gear, holding a double headed axe and madder than a wet hen.But she's no fighter.  How to get her there?  This is how.I want to thank Hallo Katzchen for Ivo, Gunnar, and Huk, and curiouslyhigh for Teja and Derick.





	Battle of the Library

Charles was doing one of his sporadic inspection tours of Mordhaus that morning. Back when Dethklok had first opened the 'haus, he did them often to keep an eye on the new Klokateers and to check on any reports of problems. Just to keep the new Gears on their toes. But since the 'haus had been running so long and so many were seasoned employees, he really didn't have to do the tour. But he still liked doing it. It kept him out of the office for awhile and therefore away from any reports of Dethklok's....shenanigans. It didn't make those problems go away, but at least he didn't know about them right at that moment.

He was in a hallway in the working area of the 'haus when the explosion happened. It was nearby and large, too large to have been anything any of the band did. It was rapidly followed by gunfire. Charles' guess was that someone was attacking the garages. He pulled his gun from it's shoulder holster and took off down the hallway. And slowed to a stop when he heard voices at an intersection in the hall. He crept to the corner. The voices sounded distorted by helmet speakers, but somehow he knew they were not any of the elite Gears. 

“Where at the artifacts? The Sumerian tablets?”

There was undistorted laughter. “I’ll never tell you!”

“I’ll kill you!”

“I am a Gear in the wheel of Klok! I fear not my mortality!”

Charles peered around the corner. The Gear was on his knees, and rather battered and bloody, in the midst of 4, no, 5 attackers. They wore black with helmets, and no insignia. So Charles had no idea who they were sent by, but he could guess. A subtle movement caught his eye, and an eye of one of the men. The Gear pulled a knife from his boot and tried to attack the man questioning him. One of the others shot him several times. He fell over dead.

“Damn it, number 4! We didn’t get the information we needed.” The leader reached up and pushed something on his helmet. “Teams 2 and 3, keep on to the library. No information from our hostage. We have to assume the intel about the vaults are true.”

“Let’s move! We’ll be spotted sooner or later and I want to be closer!”

Charles stepped around the corner. “It’s sooner and that is my bread and butter you’re fucking with.” He brought down the 5 attackers in swift order, having surprise on his side.

He then pulled out his Dethphone and contacted security headquarters.

********

They had a day off and all was right with the world. Teja, Gunnar, Ivo, Huk, and Derick were headed out to run a few errands and have some fun. But as they walked the halls to security (Teja had something he wanted to pick up), they paused when they heard the explosion and fighting. But there was no immediate call on their cells, so they thought they were still off. The group entered security hq. 

“Hey, 2478911, do you have it under control or do you need our help?” Teja asked with a bit of a grin.

“Naw, we got it covered. Just a small attack on the garages and hangers. Piece of cake. Get going before the boss decides otherwise.”

Which means, of course, was right when Charles’ call came in. “We need to get some coverage on the library! They are after the Sumerian artifacts and Klokateer 1195. Protect her and them and the band if they are there.”

Gear 2478911 replied “Sorry, sir, we don’t have enough to do that! The exterior of the library is covered, but we don’t have enough to protect the interior.”

The off-duty Gears looked at each other and sighed. Teja stepped up to a free mic as the others went to the lockers to pull out vests and guns. “Sir, 8352 here, along with 711, 138, 1566, and 17458. We are off-duty but can cover the library for you. We’ll be there in about five minutes or less.”

“Good, 8352. You’ll get extra time later. Just keep 1195, the artifacts, and... er, anyone else from them at all costs.”

Gunnar came up to Teja with his vest and some weapons. The others were finishing securing their vests, guns and extra ammo over their civies. It would take too long to suit up proper, so it was just the vests, headsets (instead of helmets), and their personal weapons. Teja pulled his vest on, clicked the ammo belt on, and was leading them out the door in seconds.

************

Janet had set up her laptop, pulled a crate of tablets from one of the vaults, and had started her day when the sounds of explosions and gunfire reached her. All she did was look up, listen to determine how close it was, and then went back to work. It took her a second before she shook her head with the thought “I’ve been working here too long.”

She heard not too subtle footsteps heading for the vaults. “They’re locked, m’lord Explosion.” She said without even turning to look.

“Ah, d@#% it!” His voice rumbled out from the stacks. “And how’d you know?” 

Janet replied “You always try it. There are reasons Mr. Offdenson put them off limits. Thought you might take the distraction to try it again.”

Nathan just grumbled and went back to his usual reach area of History. The Gear could hear Murderface about the same area (they had got some new Civil War books and journals in), Skwisgaar and Toki arguing (“stops copies mes!”), and Pickles off humming to himself. 

Janet turned back to her work and was sorting through the tablets- crop reports, treaty, prophesy maybe, crop reports- when there seemed to be a running horde in the hallway leading to the library. She looked up yell at whoever it was when the off-duty Gears in combat gear (at least half combat gear) came thundering into the library. She was astonished enough to leave her finger in the air, month open, staring at the sight of the Gears with no hoods and suited for battle.

“What in hell?” She finally managed.

Teja said “The ‘haus is under attack and the object is here, you and the Sumerian artifacts. We have to get them secured, and you safe. Gears, help 1195 get the tablets back in the vaults and safe.”  
Janet had begun putting the tablets back in the crates and switching off her laptop. “Careful with the tablets. A lot are very fragile. Screw the tops on the crates and we can moved them to the vault.” She slid her laptop in her shoulder bag, then pulled a drawer open just as one of the Gears who had been on perimeter came from the stacks herding Dethklok along.

“Sir, we found the band here, too.”

Teja swore. “Like we don’t have enough to worry about. Alright get them down to the vaults.”

As Janet pulled an automatic pistol out of a drawer, checked it, and then stuffed a couple of clips in her pockets. “Don’t let them in the vaults. The new security system is half way in.”

Teja looked at her. “What?”

“Mr. Offdensen had the new system activated. The vaults will stay open if they are already open, but if they are closed while there is an alarm active- fire, break-in, attack- once they are closed, the pass code is scrambled and the fire suppression system activates. Which means, because the items stored here will be destroyed if water or chemicals get on them, the air is sucked out of the vaults.”

The off-duty Gears, as a group, looked at the band with “STAY OUT OF THE VAULTS.... sirs!”

Janet continued “The hallway around the vaults should be safe and secure enough if they go to the back. The only way they will come to harm is if the attackers get past you.”

The hooded Gear went back to join his group at the exterior door as the others moved the crates and Janet’s shoulder bag to the tablets’ vault and closed the doors on all that were open.

Gunnar had a puzzled look, “But, how does you get back into the vaults?”

“Mr. Offdensen has the codes to reset the pass codes.”

Teja looked at the ragtag group. “Okay, 1195, and m’lords, you stay her...”

“Oh, no!” Janet said, a very stubborn look on her face. “I can shoot and hit the broadside of a barn. I can protect my work just as well as you can! Almost, anyway.”

Teja looked at her. “Alright, we don’t have the time to argue. You’ll need an edged weapon if your clips run out.”

Janet only then noticed the various edged weapons most of them had. Except for one. “Give me one of the axes on the wall, that should work. I don’t do swords well at all.”

The tall, thin, heavily pierced Gear (Huk Janet thought his name was; she didn’t know the elite Gears that well) reached up and pulled one of the oversized axes off the wall and presented it to her with a grin. She gave him a hairy eyeball. Teja just rolled his eyes and and pulled down a much smaller, double headed axe that the woman might be able to handle.

Janet took it, and then propped it up against one of the shelves to have it nearby in case she needed it.

Teja turned to the others. “Derick, ah, 17458, you guard the band and keep them back there in the hallway. As for the rest of you, our focus will be the way we came in. The perimeter is already covered.”  
Teja pointed at Janet, “You, 1195, stay out of our way mostly. And don’t get killed.”

“Gonna work real hard at that one, sir.”

Just about then there was the sound of fighting coming from the far end of the library when there outside doors where. Swiftly followed by the sound of running getting closer in the hall leading to the library.  
The Gears had no time to create any blockades in front of the library enterance and had to settle for overturning the tables where they were. They got down behind them as the attackers entered the library with their guns at ready. There were about eight of them.

The fire fight started almost instantly. 

The attackers pushed over some tables as shields as two of them went down under the barrage of fire from the Gears. The remaining attackers dove behind the tables.

Behind them, Janet just barely heard the unarmed Gear say “Stay back, m’lord!” and then Nathan’s rumble “But I wanna watch!”

Both sides kept up the fire fight, only pausing now and then to eject an empty clip and shove another in. Janet ran out of clips first and dropped down behind the table, then scrambled over to her axe. A sudden silence fell over the library as both sides either ran out of clips or couldn’t reload. There was a cry of “AT THEM!” and the attackers headed for the Gears.

About the same time, Janet thought she heard running coming from the stacks. Suddenly, the Gear guarding the band, Derick, was a blur to her right as he dove down the aisle after someone. Janet hadn’t seen him take a weapon, but from the sounds coming from the aisle, he didn’t seem to need one. 

Janet still heard someone advancing down the aisle to her left. Staying on the floor, she hefted the axe. In the meantime, the attackers were met by a rush of the Gears and the hand-to-hand fight began. The attackers were sadly over-matched. After all, the Gears were fighting for Dethklok.

Janet sat, the axe on her right, waiting until the lone attacker moved into their area, his rifle at ready, and concentrating on the fight in front of him, not on some lone woman on the floor. She swung the axe with as much force she could muster and stuck him just below his bulletproof vest. He fell over, carrying the axe with him, almost cutting himself in two, as the other Gears finished off the others.

They stood, breathing hard, as silence fall over the library again. Janet stared at the blood pooling behind her kill. She stood up with a bit of a wobble. This was much different from the battle at the record release party. That had been more like a first person shooter video game. For some reason, other than she felt the need to, she reached over and pulled the pistol still in it’s holster on the attacker’s hip.

“Well... that was.... different.” Janet said, quietly.

Teja looked at her and saw she seemed to be going into a bit of shock. Her face was pale. “First battle?

“Second, but first hand to han....”

Not all of the attackers were down. There had been one young man, his first time, too. He was very good in his training and had been assigned to the team who had attacked Mordhaus. He wasn’t going to be part of the battle, but one of the older members had gotten ill and he had been moved up. He hadn’t been ready for something like this. When his team had hit the library and dove behind the tables, he had stayed down. Until his team was dead and there was only a woman speaking. He had to do something! So his last act was to raise and aim at the spot the voice was coming from. He managed to get two shots off, one hitting Janet in her left shoulder, the other going wide as the other Gears grabbed what they thought had ammo and unloaded at him.

Janet had been thrown back and down by the force of the bullet, but had found her feet almost as fast. Adrenalin can be amazing sometimes. She came up firing the pistol and swearing to beat the band!

The Gears’ and the band’s heads had snapped around to her as she unloaded the clip. It wasn’t that she was on her feet. They had all seen some things in battle. It was the amazing, multi-lingual string of obscenities streaming from the normally well mannered woman.

Janet kept shooting until the clip was empty. As she got ‘click click click’ from the gun, she ended her tirade with “THE SON OF A BI#@$% SHOT ME!!”

Her left arm hung at her side. She turned to the others, “And it HURTS!”

Toki had his hand over his mouth, but the others look both startled and impressed as she swayed. Gunnar moved to right a chair as Teja went to check her shoulder and gently push her onto the chair. “Sit, or you’ll fall down,”

She thudded down as Teja called to the security center, “Library is secure. One person shot. Need medics now.”

“Man, that was brutal! I don’t know that many curses!” Nathan exclaimed.

Teja looked at Janet. She seemed to be going into shock. “Yeah, where did you learn all that?”

Janet took a couple of breaths before she replied. “Well, I’m good at ancient languages, but not so good at...well, living languages. Oh, I can read and write translations, but when it comes to speaking them, ah, not so hot for some reason.”

She looked up at the others, “Some friends in college decided that it would help me if I learned the obscenities, come-ons, and putdowns. It really didn’t help, but I can swear at anyone world wide.”

“Ja, Is don’t t’ink I know all dose bad words!” Toki said. “Is think my ears are in troubles.”

“Sorry, m’lord.”

“How many do you know?”

“I loose track, but there is not only US, but English, Aussie, and Canadian, yes, they are different. Ah... Japanese, Chinese, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, German, ah...a lot of African dialects, Native American, Greek, Spanish,....” She started to fade out.

Just as there was the sound of a large group running for the library. The Gears turned and raised their weapons, even though they were probably empty. Fortunately, it was Charles with the rest of the elite Gears, followed shortly by some medic Gears.

Sizing up the situation, despite the defenders minor cuts or grazes, the medics headed for Janet, who was getting paler and looking like she was going into shock. One kneeled in front of her and carefully cut the left shoulder of her shirt to look at the wound. After a quick exam, he radioed to the hospital, “Clean through the shoulder, bleeding heavily, will need blood ready and surgery.”

“Be postive.” Janet said.

“What?” the medic looked puzzled.

“My blood type, B+”.

He chuckled. “Anything else?”

“Naw, except it hurts.”

He was pulled a syringe out with something in it. He checked it and then gave her the shot in her right arm. “There, that should help until we get you to surgery.”

He did a quick bandage to try to stop the bleeding before they got to the hospital. 

“Oh, and let it scar! I want a scar!” Janet giggled. “I think the drug is working! I’m starting to feel better!”

The medic said. “Good. Can you walk?”

“I can walk!” Janet tried to stand up, but her legs gave out. “But my legs can’t!”

The medic picked her up as the others around laughed. 

“Weeee!” Janet said as he carried her to the gurney. “I ain’t going to remember this part!” She got a slightly serious look. “I’m a cheap date.”

Which sent the men into harder laughter as the medic place her on the gurney before he dropped her.

“You didn’t give me the stuff Pickles uses, did you? I might not come down for WEEKS then!”

“No, you’re fine.” The medic chuckled as they started to wheel her out.

“Remember I want a scar!!! And a tattoo! I’m gonna get a tattoo after this!” As they wheeled her out to the hall, she began to sing “OH, I want a scar, just like the scar that married dear old dad!”

One of the elite Gears who had come in with Charles, laughted, “Damn, I guess Bee and Sarge were right about her being a light weight.”

Charles hurmphed and turned to Teja, “Gear, report. Did any of them get out?”

“No, sir, they got in and didn’t get out. All the artifacts are secure in the vault and the band... well, safe.”

“It was great! I think I got a song out of it!” Nathan said and headed out, the rest of the band following along behind him. “And I’m hungry, I need chips... and beer.”

**********************

The next day, Charles checked on the wounded from the attack. Most were minor wounds with only a few very bad. He got to 1195‘s room and found she already had a few visitors of the band and the elite Gears. Her left shoulder was heavily bandaged and she had on one of those one shoulder, black hospital gowns. (There were enough Gears who would get injured in one arm.) 

“Hi, Charlie! They have me on the goooood stuff!” Janet said with a grin. “And I’m teaching dirty foreign languages!”

He gave her a look as the others laughed. “Ah, I see. I’ll keep the, ah, security tape so you can see later.”

She giggled as the doctor entered the room. “Ah, good, Mr. Offdensen. Gear 1195 should be fine if she can get some rest.” He eyed the band and the other Gears pointedly.

Charles ushered the band and the Gears out as Janet giggled again. “Okay, nap now!”

**********************

About a month later, Janet was finally cleared for light duty as long as she worn a sling to remind her to not move her left arm that much. She could go back to translating the tablets, but another Gear had to carry the crates for her. She had been doing some translating of the tablets she had scanned into her laptop before the attack. They had repaired the library and gotten new tables so it looked as usual. She went to her usual spot and saw a new crate already waiting on the table next to her usual one. That already had something placed in the center.

It was a wooden rectangle shaped carrying case, about the size and shape of a guitar case. It was inlaid and had a Post-it note on it. “For the Librarian, Teja. Gunnar, Huk, Ivo, Derick”

Janet sighed. “I’m not a librarian.”

A chuckle came from the stacks behind her. “Yeah, but you still do a lot here besides translating.” Teja said.

“What is it? It’s not that big, so unless it’s a snake, I don’t have to feed it.”

“Well, maybe. Open it.”

She flip the clasp and open the case. Inside was a double headed axe that looked like an open book. The etching on the blades was the Sumerian drawing of the band. There was some writing that she took for nonsense until she looked closer.

“Okay, who hacked my laptop?” 

“We’ll never tell!”

Janet lifted the axe out of the padding and turned it over. The other side was still designed like an open book and had the Klokateer’s pledge.

“This..is beautiful. Thank you.” She turned around to see Teja leaning against the shelves and grinning. “Gear 1195, you are now officially the mascot for the Security Gears.”

“Oh, yeah?” Janet lifted the axe to rest on her right shoulder. “Which reminds me, do any of you have any past due library books?”

“Ahh....we’ll be right back.” The Gears disappeared into the stacks.

Janet grinned as she put the axe back in it’s case and started setting up her work for the day.


End file.
